1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to capsule medical devices, methods for operating the devices, and capsule medical device systems.
2. Description of Related Art
In the related art, there is a known capsule medical device that has a casing having a capsule shape, that is introduced into a patient's body, and that takes an image of the interior of a body cavity to acquire image information (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2003-38424).
This capsule medical device includes wireless transmission means to transmit the acquired image information toward an external device disposed outside the patient's body.
Because the capsule medical device of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2003-38424 acquires image information in the body cavity at predetermined time intervals, it needs to acquire a large amount of image information at an increased frame rate to carry out examination over the entire length of the inner wall of the body cavity in the longitudinal direction without missing an affected area. If high-resolution image information is to be acquired, the amount of data thereof is enormous, and accordingly the amount of power required to transmit the data to a memory for storing the data or to the outside is increased, thus the size of the battery and the size of the casing of the capsule medical device tend to be increased.